Researchers at University College
London believe those unable to draw are not seeing the world as it
really is – and simply need to work on their visual skills.

They say our preconceptions often cloud the way we perceive objects, leading us to distort them when we put pencil to paper.

Good drawers have a more refined way of perceiving objects and putting them on the page.

Rebecca Chamberlain, a psychologist
who led the research, said: ‘Most people probably don’t become
proficient because they don’t practise enough, and also they are put off
by early failure – “It doesn’t look anything like it”.’

Miss Chamberlain and her colleagues conducted experiments investigating the role of visual memory in drawing.

They believe skill results in part
from an ability to remember simple relationships in an object such as an
angle between two lines.

Good visual memory is key to producing a masterpiece, like this painting by Benjamin Williams Leader, on show at the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery

They also found people who could ignore an object’s surroundings and focus on detail were able to draw more accurately.

And those who were able to ignore their preconceptions and view objects with a fresh eye also created better sketches.

Miss Chamberlain said: ‘Surprisingly,
it might be harder to draw something very familiar, such as a face,
than something very novel, about which one has no preconceptions.’

Those taking part in the experiment found their skills improved with time.

The findings were presented to a US conference in a paper written by Miss Chamberlain and her colleague Chris McManus.